by Skyler Grant
Quinn hated turning over his weapons, especially in unknown territory, but this was actually something of an encouraging sign.
Once his weapons were taken a door hissed and slid aside. The room beyond was occupied by only women, most in body armor with weapons at their hips, and one elegantly dressed and seated behind a desk. She was beautiful, stunningly so, her features as perfect as Tamara’s. Quinn wondered if that meant she was genetically enhanced as well.
“Captain of the Kathryn. You’ve not been to Sobek before and here you come walking into my establishment even though you just put in a few hours ago at the House Senataro port. We’ve got business, Captain?” she asked. Her voice was breathy, heated. Even though it didn’t suit the conversation in the slightest it screamed of sex and need.
“Don’t know a thing about you or what business you do here. I’ve an eye for certain types though and noticed them congregating around your fine establishment. Maybe they just came for the company, it seems lovely, but maybe you’ve got something that needs doing from a fast ship and a flexible crew,” Quinn said.
“Mmm. Too-convenient timing, although that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re lying. I’m Maiden,” Maiden said, as she tapped at a few keys. “I’ll need you to speak more plainly, Captain. Are you a smuggler? An assassin? A thief?”
“More the first or the third, when needed,” Quinn said.
Maiden pursed her lips. “Have you seen what is happening out there, Captain? This system is a bomb about to explode. Somewhere the fuse has already been lit and we’re just waiting for it to make its way here. It makes it hard to trust.”
“Makes it vital to trust somebody,” Quinn said.
“I wish you were wrong. Imperium inspectors are at the docks. They’re also checking all vessels departing the station. That many ships have crews that need something to do and that something is trouble for me and mine. I got a cargo that needs delivered to the rim. You do not open it up and you do not ask questions. Five jumps, and getting caught with it is a death sentence. Two thousand, quarter up front and three quarters upon delivery because I don’t know you. Possibility of more work after,” Maiden said.
“If we run an Imperium blockade, we aren’t coming back here anytime soon,” Quinn said.
“Don’t expect you to. Private net channel, standard practice,” Maiden said.
It wasn’t standard practice for him. The technology existed, but it was out of his price range. Docking at House Senataro must have made Maiden think he was a higher class criminal. Of course, his standard jobs wouldn’t bring him a two thousand payout even with a highly illicit cargo.
There was probably just the sort of private network equipment he needed in the Senataro catalog. That sort of thing was popular on pleasure yachts for the wealthy so they could conduct private business in space.
“I don’t know you either. Twenty five hundred, but you can make it twenty percent,” Quinn said.
Maiden gave him the flat sort of look that women usually reserved for men who were trying to be clever and had their crap seen through.
“The original offer and I’ll throw in a romp with one of the girls, or boys, if you prefer,” Maiden said.
“I’ll pass on the entertainment and we can call it twenty-one.”
“Bad bargain. I run way higher than that,” Veca said.
“Done. My cargo will be delivered just before you are ready to depart,” Maiden said.
26
Quinn headed back to the Kathryn, Window shopping didn’t have much interest for him and with Tamara in control of his share he couldn’t even afford to go out to eat.
Workmen were flowing in and out of the ship when he arrived, more than just the engineers they’d offered to provide.
“Hey stud,” Kara said from her place inside the hold, double rifles strapped over her chest as she kept a wary eye on those coming and going.
“You know it is okay to call me Captain every so often. What is with all the workers?” Quinn asked.
“Tamara did some shopping of a different kind and now we’re getting a data hub installed,” Kara said.
Quinn couldn’t help but to wince at that. That was worse than he’d expected, worse than he’d even feared. A data hub on a Core world wasn’t a pricey thing. They required just limited data channels to interact with a single network. That changed with a ship on the move and often where there were no Galactic standards. Mobile equipment had to be versatile and robust, and both of those cost. Quinn thought he had an idea what she was thinking. With her expensive links needed anyways a data hub would be able to serve both her and the ship.
Even so he didn’t agree. This would be an expensive toy on a ship that was falling apart. They needed the other things that the money could have bought. So far Quinn hadn’t disagreed with Tamara on any big decisions, but he disagreed on this one.
By the time Tamara and the others returned hours later Quinn had managed to work himself up quite a bit about it.
They’d all changed their looks. Dela was wearing a new take on her archaeologist adventurer look, this time in red leather with accents of silver. The top seemed bulkier than usual, armor weave?
Tamara was dressed in rather more concealing business attire, angular black garments with dramatic lines that spoke of wealth and mystery.
Jinx was by far the most casual of the three, shorts and a tee-shirt, and sunglasses that concealed her eyes and their distinctive color.
Tamara caught one look at Quinn’s expression and was angling towards him, sliding her arm into his and moving them towards his quarters. Quinn didn’t have to go along, but stopping would have required wrenching Tamara around and making a scene. He wasn’t ready to go there, not quite yet.
When the door hissed behind them Tamara let go of his arm. “I can see the desire in you to ruin a very good day and to make it a bad one. I don’t recommend it. We needed a win.”
“We needed refreshed armor plating. We needed new vid screens. We needed an update to our nav’ maps. There are a host of things this ship needs and isn’t getting because of you,” Quinn said.
“Ah,” Tamara said primly, and moved to tap the comm panel. “Jinx, I know I’d mentioned it’s your go at the captain tonight. Mind if I take your place?”
“He told you that you looked amazing in that? He just can’t wait to tear it off you huh?” Jinx’s voice came through.
“You could say I’ve got him mightily stirred up,” Tamara said.
“I can wait. Have fun,” Jinx said.
Quinn stared at her.
“You were not going to ruin things for that girl with this foul temper. I know the system was expensive,” Tamara said.
“How much?” Quinn asked.
“It ate up most of the household share, and my share, and your share, and dipped into the ship’s share. It was expensive up front, but with that we got two years of access. Through the Galactic Bank channels no less, stable and operating in every civilized system and most not so civilized.”
“I’m not angered that you thought it a good idea, even though it was a damned foolish one. I’m angered that you made such a big decision without consulting me,” Quinn said.
“We’re on a limited timetable and you made it clear you didn’t want to handle the finances. You ran off into town at first opportunity. I note you came back smelling like a brothel.”
“I don’t … do I? I didn’t do anything, and they offered,” Quinn said.
Tamara began to strip down, loosening a clasp on her dress and slipping out of it.
“Of course not, Captain. You are, for all your many faults, an honorable man. If you weren’t we wouldn’t even be giving this a try. Now strip, if I’m having my night, I’m damned well having it for real,” Tamara said.
“Perhaps it somehow missed your attention that we are fighting here and that getting it on with you is about the last thing on my mind.”
Tamara stepped forward, muscles at play beneath the flesh of that perfectly
formed body. When she stood in front of Quinn her hand reached out to grab at his crotch, not quite in an attack although there was certainly a hint of aggression in how her fingers explored.
Physical attraction had never been the problem with Tamara. It wasn’t a problem now and Quinn found himself responding in a predictable fashion.
“Sex seems to have moved up the queue in your mind now. We’re going to fight a good bit, Captain, more than any of the others because we’re the two poles that are pulling this family between us. I think it is good that we do. I don’t want myself getting too comfortable around you or you around me. I want us to keep each other sharp,” Tamara said.
“Lady, your mind is just one big festival of crazy,” Quinn said.
Tamara’s hands moved to his pants, undoing the clasp, and she pushed them down. Now exposed, her fingertips played once more against his arousal, fingers curling around it as they gave a few gentle strokes.
“And you want me. I’ll do this by hand to start us out, if I must, but I warn you I keep score. Before the night is out, that way ends with you on your knees going down on me,” Tamara said.
“Are we even having the same conversation?” Quinn asked.
“No. I’m establishing another one of these little family rules. We can fight, we should fight, but the bad ones, the ones that might grow into poison, always end in us screwing the hell out of each other at the first opportunity. Always. Whatever happens, we’re keeping this family together and that means not letting anything come between us,” Tamara said. Her eyes had a glint that was almost dangerous.
Quinn stepped out of his pants and took off his shirt, throwing it atop the pile.
“What do you think we are?” Quinn asked.
“On your back, on the bed. Not an official rule but I insist, I always finish on top. I’ll answer your question if you really want to know.”
Quinn was getting that a lot lately. He now wondered if some of the others were getting it from Tamara.
Quinn stretched out and moments later Tamara was atop him, straddling him, long nails tracing the curves of the muscles in his chest.
“Tell me,” Quinn said.
“I’m a monster, Quinn. A beautiful monster, a brilliant monster, but a monster all the same. I never want you to doubt that for a moment, to let anything else cross your mind. I didn’t know what my firm had planned for Jinx, but they never questioned sending me with her because they knew me. What the duke had planned, I’ve done worse. I’ve done so much worse,” Tamara said, and she lowered herself atop him.
Quinn let out a gasp despite himself, finding himself mesmerized by the sway of Tamara’s full breasts as she began to rock. “But you didn’t complete your contract.”
“I didn’t. You see, I think there is something special about Jinx. She doesn’t realize it, but there is something truly good about her. Something special, and noble, and strong. I think she is something the Imperium has lost.” Tamara’s hips began to move faster.
Quinn was already starting to find it very hard to focus on the conversation.
“I had no idea you had that much faith in her,” Quinn said.
Tamara chuckled, her nails digging bloody furrows into Quinn’s flesh as she pulled herself forward and pressed a kissed to his lips. Hungered, with a savage bite following that was also enough to draw blood.
“Not just her. I think you are a hero, Quinn. A second rate, shabby, mopey little hero who was trapped in his past, but in a week I’ve taken you from mourning your ex -wife to loaning me her dresses and fucking me in her bed, and you love it,” Tamara said.
It was just about the worst thing she could have said. It was perfectly timed. Quinn cried out as his body began to jerk and he released deep inside of her. Tamara found her own release, words blissfully fading for a short time.
Tamara got off him and threw a package on the bed. “New suit. You’ll love it. Get dressed, we should have dinner with the others. Make sure to compliment all the girls on their new outfits, be flirty.”
“You can’t think what you just did was right,” Quinn said.
“Nice and right are usually not the same thing. Your past has been holding you back a long time. I’ll burn it down around your ears if that is what it takes for you to move on.”
27
Dinner was brought in. Melody was still working with the engineers and not available to do her usual cooking. The dishes were some sort of local specialties, seafood in a creamy and spicy sauce that was popular on the main planet in the system.
Quinn did all the flirting that Tamara might have hoped for, and afterwards they retired to his quarters once more. Perhaps it was her competitive nature that wouldn’t let her rest until they’d gone another three rounds, more than any of the others had gotten out of him.
It was at least exhausting. He was sound asleep with his arm draped around her when she elbowed him hard in the ribs. A moment later she did it again.
“I’m not a cow, I can only be milked so much,” Quinn said.
“Cows can only be milked so much. By your own logic, you are a cow. No, we are not doing this. You wanted an alert if we needed to go. We need to go,” Tamara said.
That woke Quinn up at once and he slipped his arm from around Tamara to get out of bed, pulling on pants. “How much time have we got?”
“We’ve got a little bit of advance notice. Not much, in an hour all hell is going to break loose.”
Quinn checked a clock. Eighteen hours in port. There would still be engineers aboard, they’d need to get them off.
“Do we have anything still unspent in our credit balance?” Quinn asked.
“A bit. I’ll blow it on those damned screens of yours. Anything from the House they can bring right over,” Tamara said.
Tamara hadn’t bothered with clothes, but then she didn’t have much need of them right now. Her greatest contribution was accessing the data net through the interface in her head.
“Does your high-priced toy work yet?” Quinn asked.
Tamara narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “It does. They sent specialists to install it as soon as we ordered.”
“I want an open channel on an address we were given earlier,” Quinn said.
A beep and then Maiden’s breathy voice came through. “Captain, perhaps you didn’t grasp the obvious rule of I call you, you don’t call me. You especially don’t call me in the middle of the night.”
“Prime working hours for you, isn’t it? If you check the data nets you’ll see a storm is coming. We’re bouncing port. If you want us to handle your cargo we need it now,” Quinn said.
“Wait.”
There was a delay of about thirty seconds.
“Fuckers. Cargo will be at your ramp in fifteen minutes. Recommend launching as soon afterwards as possible,” Maiden said.
“Understood,” Quinn said, and killed the connection.
“You haven’t even asked exactly why we need to leave,” Tamara said.
“Does it matter?”
“No, not in the slightest. Not in the moment,” Tamara said. “Our balance is spent. You’ve got your screens.”
Quinn hit a ship-wide alert, a blaring tone, and keyed a comm to the whole crew. “We’re bouncing early. Melody, get those engineers off my ship and if anything is hanging open waiting to kill us, see that it isn’t. Dela, want you on copilot. Taki and Kara, we’ll have cargo arriving in the hold that needs secured.”
Acknowledgments came in and Quinn finished getting dressed.
“Put something on and talk with me as I walk. What is happening?” Quinn asked.
Tamara grabbed a dress from a closet, another one of Kathryn’s, white and airy, and slipped it over her head.
“You know, you don’t have blanket permission to go in there,” Quinn said.
“Quinn, get rid of these. Put them in storage if you must, but it is better you dispose of them completely. You’ve a lot of women spending the night and they need some closet space. If these
are here by my next turn, I’ll tie you to that bed and wear every single one of them while fucking your brains out and seeing just how many sweet memories of yours we can defile,” Tamara said, matter-of-fact and then paused, listening. “We’ve just gone from having no Emperor to having three, and two Empresses besides. I expect that number to grow shortly.”
Even in the urgency of the moment Quinn just had to stop and stare at Tamara for a second. “How is it you can so consistently present even a well-intentioned idea in a way that makes me horrified at the depths you’ll go to?”
Tamara leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips, lingering a moment before she pulled away. “What I do to you, I do in our family’s best interests. Fear not for yourself, fear for our enemies.”
This wasn’t the time—it wasn’t the time for them to have another fight. Quinn headed for the bridge with Tamara stepping into place alongside him. “They going to start shooting?”
“The Second Imperium has always been a lie. Thousands of lords all carving out their own territories and giving allegiance to a single Emperor mostly because it reminded them of the First Imperium they’d worked so hard to overthrow. A few of those ships are filled with true patriots, but what does a true patriot even believe in a situation like this?” Tamara asked.
“I suppose they start weighing the legitimacy of the claims,” Quinn said.
“And if those ships don’t start shooting, you’ll see a campaign to do just that, I’m sure.”
“But you think they’ll shoot first,” Quinn said.
“Wouldn’t have kicked you out of bed otherwise.”
A bleary-looking Dela was already in the copilot’s chair.
“Did you choose now to go on a bender?” Quinn asked as he settled into the captain’s seat and hit the comm. “Where do we stand?”
“Engineers are off the ship, boss,” Melody said.
“Remaining cargo is stowed, Captain,” Taki said.
“We’re still waiting on a last-minute delivery. Let me know as soon as it’s secured and we’re good for departure,” Quinn said.
